By The Time I Get To New Vegas
by ManonmarZ1
Summary: Getting shot in the head, sounds fun doesn't it. For Six that's a different story. A cliched story of revenge, or is it more than that?
1. Chapter 1

New Vegas, a place for misfits like me…

Why is there a ceiling fan above me?

Why I am I sitting on a bed?

Why is my head ringing so much?

Where am I?

I blink a couple of times and look around the room. It looks like a makeshift doctor office in a small house, almost as if the person who lives here just cobbled a bunch of medical equipment and put it in a corner somewhere. There are books, crates, supplies everywhere on tables and on shelves. I look and see what looks like to be the person who is taking care of me. He has what looks like to be a sheriff's mustache and a standard set of everyday man's clothes. He notices that I'm looking at him, smiles softly and announces in a calm voice,

"Looks like you're up, we thought you were a goner for sure,"

We? Who is we?

"After someone put a bullet in that noggin of yours I had to go around digging it out, had to take it out of course, don't want the lead to reach your brain.."

As he is rambling on and on about how the bullet must have hit my brain, I stare back I keep thinking.

Was I dead? Am I in heaven right now, or did God already judge me? If he already judged me, then I would have know, or maybe, I'm not dead and I'm looking at this ceiling fan spinning above me. I feel my exposed body getting colder by the second.

I turn to my left again and cut him off,

"Look doctor, I understand that this all makes no sense to me or you, it's just that," I grab at my shoulders and sink into myself, "It's kind of cold in here and as you can tell, I don't have that much on."

He looks me up and down and says, "Ah you're right, here let me help you up."

He puts out his hand and I reach for it. I grab it firmly and try to stand on my own two feet. I guess getting shot messes with your coordination, because my legs felt like they were gonna give up on me and my head was ringing. He stops me and says reassuringly,

"Take it slow now, no need to rush, you can take as much time as you need."

"Thanks," I force myself up on my feet, "but I think I can manage."

"Wow, usually anyone who is shot doesn't go this fast with getting their bearings. What are you exactly?"

I smile, "Someone who got shot in the head."

He leads me over to what looks like a machine that looks like a jukebox just without the colored lights and different albums. I walk up to the machine and look at the first slide, it has in bold, big letters written STRENGTH on the top of it. And under the title is a bunch of numbers with phrases next to them.

Like with the first one it says; can't even lift a fly, and the last one is: can lift the world. I keep glancing through all of them and settle on the one at 8, which says: could lift a steel bar if you tried really hard. I chuckle a bit and wait for something to happen. Nothing does, so I keep going.

Perception, oh I wonder what this is?

I just decide on 5

My eyesight is average at best

I flip to the next slide

Endurance, huh, how long could I run for again.

I decide on 5.

Next one.

Charisma, well I am a pretty good looking woman.

I pick 8.

Intelligence, wait what does a doctor do?

I pick 4.

Agility, quick just like Jack jumping over the candlestick.

I pick 5.

Luck, have I broken any mirrors lately, oh yeah I did that one time.

I go with 5.

After I use the machine I stand back and just wait. Wait for something, if anything to happen.

Come on do something! I didn't just pick those for no reason. Give me superpowers or something. Wait am I tingling? Oh yep, I can feel it now!

I can feel my body slowly start to get more toned and grow in height. My vision becomes a bit more blurry, I can feel my mind going through different mock conversations in my head and all the social cues and how to pick up on them. It's all good until I can feel myself physically lose some brain cells. Take a seat on the floor, I stop and wait for the changes to stop. Rocking back and forth singing a little song until-

They finally stop.

I stand up and brush off my legs and the doctor looks at me with his mouth wide open and tells me quietly.

"Well, I never had that happen to anyone using that machine. You don't need a water or something, it's almost like your entire body and soul just transformed in front of me."

I look at him and say, "I love this."

"I'm sure you do, you aren't feeling any adverse effects, no dilated pupils, no headaches or anything?"

"Nope," I flex a bit, "In fact I feel great."

"Before we head over to the next part of the test, I have to ask what are you, and what is your name?"

"What I am," I crack a smile, "I'm pretty sure I'm someone who got shot in the head and lived."

"What about your name?"

"Well my name, hmmmm…"

What is my name? I guess getting shot in the head does have an effect when it comes remembering things. Was it Janet, noo, how about Hannah, no not that. Wait...is that really it? It can't be it's just a number. Whatever let's go with that.

"My name is Courier Six, Six."

Courier Six, what in the world happened to the other five.

"Courier Six, well that's not what I would have thought of, but let's go with that." He claps his hands together and and says, "Alright next part of the test," He points over to a couch in the other room. "Sit over there and I'll be over there shortly."

I walk over to the couch and sit down. The suede feels weird on my exposed legs. The doctor comes over with a paper, pencil, and some cards. He begins the next test.

"Alright this test is going to show your mental fortitude and ability to understand drawings and other phrases, you ready?"

"As ever."

"Okay first one, when you think of raider what do you think of."

I lean back on the couch and start to think.

Raiders huh, the people that will pillage your farm, rape your mothers and daughters, and then shoot them and you without a second thought, yeah they are all bad, but if you need a group to go with, they do have a sense of comradery, until they stab you in the back, figuratively and literally.

I lean forward, "I think of a group of people who take what is thrown at them and go with the punches, and no way that all of could be that bad, they probably were forced into it, and are psychologically trapped in it."

He blinks a couple of times and says, "I sorry to tell you, but I glanced at your machine results and your intelligence was at four, how are you speaking so well?"

"Uh, me no understand."

"Whatever next one, when I say the word New Vegas what do you think of."

I lean back and think again.

New Vegas, the place where the booze and women and plentiful, casinos don't stop for the night. The city of lights, and where everyone is either yelling about the wins they had or trying to fight the dealer. Because in New Vegas-

I lean forward again, "The house always wins."

"Well that is true, I'm now going to show you some pictures, what do you see in this."

It looks like a blurry mess, I try leaning in to get a better look and see the same. The doctor looks at my frustration and hands me some glasses and says,

"Here take these."

I put them on and magically, I can see clearly now, I can judge the whole depth of the room and everything now. The picture now looks like a whale of some sort.

"I'd go with it looks like a whale or something."

"Whale, whats a whale?"

"Nothing, next one"

He grabs another card and says, "Alright, what do you see when you look at this?"

It looks like a starry night.

"I'd say a night sky."

"Good, alright next one, now for this one I'm going to get you a choice of five options and you can only choose one, some people get mad at what they think."

He hands me the card and I know what it is instantaneously.

"It's two bears high-fiving."

"Pick from the answers."

I look at some of the choices

Mushroom cloud, waves? Who made this, can't they tell it's two bears high-fiving. They are both standing up and giving each other a high five, they are probably looking at each other's elbows.

"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to go with two bears high fiving."

"The answers."

I scoff, "Fine, it's a mushroom cloud."

"Alright, that's all I need."

He stands up and I follow him to the door at the end of the hall. He has a bag full of things and hands them to me, while I rummage through them he says,

"The stuff you had on you should be in that bag. Turns out as a courier you had a bunch of unused mail and letters," he laughs, "Even found one for me, except they spelled my name wrong."

He goes into the back to find something. I look at some of the names on the letters.

To: Mr. New Vegas, From:Your Biggest Fan, To: Pence, From: One of the King's "maidens", To: Benny, From:Jess-

Wait Benny.

I look at the name more closely.

Benny, Benny, why does that name sound so familiar. Is Benny a courier? Wait a second!

It's all coming back to me. The checkered suit. The cross that was behind me. The way my hands were tied up, and the barrel of his gun.

Benny is the guy who shot me!

Before I was about to yell out, the doctor came out with what looked like a small plate of metal, with a sheet of glass on the top of it. It is a very small object that is pretty light in my hands. While I'm messing around with it, he tells me.

"This is the Pip-Boy 2500. Some of the earlier models were giant bulky things that went up about half your forearm from your wrist. This special model is one of the only ones made, its so small it can fit in your pocket. It can even-

I must've hit a radio station because it starts emitting music.

I'm spinning around like a satellite, (lalalalalala lala)

I click the station again and say,

"Sorry."

"As you found out, it can also play music. It can even pick up stations like Black Mountain."

"Black Mountain radio?"

"It's a very weird one, if you head near Primm you can listen to it."

"I'll be sure to check it out."

I grab the jumpsuit from the bag and hold it up to the light. A big bright yellow 3 is on the back of it. I shimmy into the jumpsuit and zip it up. It fits perfectly. As I'm about to walk out of the door he tells me,

"There's a girl named Sunny Smiles in the saloon, she has a dog by her, you can't really miss her. She will tell you about surviving out here. She can get you back on your feet."

I grab his hand, shake it and say,

"Doctor, thank you so much for bringing me back. Is there anyway I can repay you?"

"Yeah," he smiles, "Don't die for a while, because we'd have to dig a deeper grave."

"Alright, I will."

I head out of the door and wave at him. He waves back and I hear the door close on him. The sun is blinding me and my eyes readjust I see the world in front of me. I walk down the path and think.

This is the Mojave huh, what happened to the land of prosperity that they talked about? Well, gotta look for Benny, but first I have to talk to Sunny and get my bearings.

I hear my stomach grumble.

Probably some food too.


	2. Chapter 2

I continue down the path and walk into the general store. Instantly, I am greeted by the sound of music.

 _Play the guitar, play it again, my John-_

"Play a different song!" I hear a voice from the back and the radio being shut off mid-verse. I head forward more cautiously, the man comes from the back and reveals himself.

"Hey, the name's Chet. I run the general store, now as long as you don't steal anything from the counter then we should be fine."

"I won't."

"Good, now what are looking to buy?"

"Something to protect myself from the denizens of the waste."

"Something fast, something loud, quiet. I need specifics."

"I'd say a rifle or something."

"Huh, judging by the way you walked in here you must have never fired a rifle. Got the perfect thing for you."

He goes into the back, and I hear some rumbling around. I hear some bullet shells drop and some swears being thrown around. He comes back with ammunition and a rifle.

"This right here is a varmint rifle, or Ol' Reliable as I call her, and 40 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition."

"How much would this cost me?"

"70 caps."

I rummage through my pockets and pull out 50 caps. I put it down on table and say,

"This is all I got."

"Sorry, no business."

"Awww," I put on my best sultry eyes, "Are you sure about that," I run my hands up and down my curves. "You sure we can't come to some sort of a _deal?_ " I even bite the corner of my lip for extra effort

I can practically see his heart start racing.

"Well...uh… for you we can just that." He frantically grabs the caps, and puts them in his cash register.

I turn around to the door and before I turn the knob I say, "I won't forget that _deal_."

If his tent isn't pitched by now, I don't know what will.

Outside of his shop, I sling the rifle of my and stand there and ponder about what I told the doctor.

 _Courier Six, huh. I wonder who the other five were. They must either be dead or MIA. If I'm the last one, why would someone want to shoot me out of all people. I'm just a person who delivers mail. There was nothing of importance that I could have had. Or was there?_

I go through the bag that the doctor gave me. I look through every individual pocket. There are some caps, water, ammo, and other miscellaneous things. While looking something catches my eye. Its looks like a folded note. I open it, and after spending a couple minutes trying to understand the writing, I start to read.

 _Hey Benny, you dolt. Before you run off, make sure you bury the person completely. Half her arm was sticking out. If she was still alive, she could've climbed out and shoots you in the head. I wouldn't be surprised if she was alive right now, and if she puts two in your head, I'll pay her way in Vegas myself, you backstabbing snake. Hope you choke on that chip, you oiled up, smooth talking jerk._

I chuckle out loud and fold it back in my pocket. I close up the bag and sling it over my shoulder. Looking towards my left, I can see the lights of the saloon illuminating in the distance. As I walk over of there, I start to think.

 _So a girl named Sunny Smiles has a dog and she is going to teach me the ways of the wasteland. Firing a gun shouldn't be that hard. You know just aim and shoot. If I have to shoot anyone however that's gonna be an issue. Not really the one to take a life._

I walk into the door of saloon and in front of me is a dog that's almost as big as me and a girl looking at me. I can hear the dog starting to growl at me, but the woman stops him and says pointing at her.

"Cheyanne stop it," the girl looks in my direction, and extends her hand, "Hi, I'm Sunny Smiles, as you notice my dog doesn't handle dogs that well, and your name is,"

I grab her hand and give it a firm shake, "Six, my name is Six."

"Huh, that's a strange name. Any last name?"

"Nope."

"Well alright," she lets go of my hand, "judging by the way you came into here, I'm guess your gonna need some help shooting that rifle of yours."

I smile, "You guessed right."

"Meet me by the back of the saloon and I'll show you the ropes."

"Okay."

I head over by the back of the saloon and head out the door. As I walk up the path I can some bottles set up in a line, which I guess is a firing range of some sort. I stop at the top of the hill and look at my rifle.

 _From what I can tell there's no ammo in the gun._

I dig through my bag and pull out some 5.56 mm rounds.

 _So load it in like this… no that's backwards, uh flip it this way, is this how you do it?_

I hear a click.

 _Ah there we go, now let's aim at the bottles. Alright just hold it up to your chest._

Holding the gun up to my chest, I pull back the trigger and I'm about to fire until I feel a hand lightly touch mine.

"What you wanna do is keep your arm straight and not move that much. If you're moving your body all over the place, then you'll be dead faster than a deathclaw chasing you."

I hold up the gun to my chest and say,

"Deathclaw, I heard about those, why are they so bad?"

"Well for starters they are really tough. I have yet to see or hear anyone kill one. They are very fast for how big they are. You can't outrun it, and when they do catch you they'll rip you apart with their giant claws."

I shudder a bit, "Sounds frightening."

"Yeah they sure are," she straightens my arm, "your arm was bending."

"Oh sorry."

"It's alright, now imagine the middle of the bottle as a torso, and the top as the head. I want to aim for the "torso" and fire."

I aim for the torso trying my hardest to think of a person, the only person I can think about is Benny. I take aim and thoughts are going through my mind.

 _Come one shouldn't be that hard. Just imagine the person who put you in the ground. Straight arms, check, gun is level headed, check. Now, breath and fire._

I'm about to pull the trigger except, I drop my arms. Sunny lets go of my hand and puts them to her side.

"I can't do it." I sigh, "I can't imagine taking anyone's life. If it was like a gecko or something that's different, but taking someone's life by my actions is something, I can't do."

She looks my in the eyes and says in a calm voice, "This may be tough for you, but the sad truth in these wastes you can't think when you pull that trigger, because when you look down the barrel of a gun, they aren't gonna hesitate."

"Okay, I'll just think of something else."

"Good, think of like a radroach or something."

"Okay."

I breath once again, and put the gun back into position aiming for the bottle. I stare down the barrel, take aim and fire. A loud crack and the sound of glass fills the air. I saw the bullet hit the glass, but after that it seemed like it disappeared.

"Alright, now try and hit the other two."

"Okay."

I hit the next two with rapid succession. I hear can Sunny clap her hands and say,

"Good job! Now do you want to help me hunt some geckos that are bothering the town."

I sit and think about it.

 _Geckos, maybe I should go hunting, I do need some food anyway. Haven't eaten since, I don't even know._

"I'll go hunting, but first can we go and get some food first?"

"Yeah, find a seat in the saloon, and I'll bring you some."  
"Okay"

I head back into the saloon and find a booth. While she is looking for some food, I sit and think.

 _Why shooting that gun so hard? Yeah, imaging you're trying to kill someone even if you don't want to is hard to do, but it's the person who shot you, so why is it so hard?_

I can hear a piece of food plop down and a bottle of whiskey cling in front of me. I snap out of my thought and stare at it. It has antennas sticking out of its head, and like 5 or six legs, it almost looks like a…

"Radroach, yeah, these things taste awful, but it fills you up."

"Really," I poke at it a bit, "How would I even go about eating it?"

"You rip off the head, legs, and the wings, and dig into the body."

"Is there anyone poisonous bits, I'd have to watch out for?"

"If you cook it properly no, but if you eat it raw then you would need to watch out for the heart and liver."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind."

I rip off the head, legs, and wings, and take a bite into the body. As soon as it hits my tongue, I wretch back in disgust. I take a swig of whiskey to try and bring it down, but it just burns my throat. By the end of it my throat is on fire and I'm forcing myself to swallow some radroach. We both finally finish, and I tell her.

"I think I'm ready to hunt some geckos."

"Really," she puts down 30 caps on the table, "Well, alright let's head out, I'll meet near the hill again."

"Okay, I'll see you there."

I walk out of the saloon again and head up the hill. I standing there waiting for Sunny to come out of the door. I cross my arms and tapping my foot cause more than five minutes for her to come out. She comes out yelling,

"Sorry, I had to get Cheyanne to stop trying to bit the patrons. She gets a bit rowdy when there is people she doesn't know. She was almost trying to head after you when you walked out of the door. Anyway," she is beside me know with her dog, "You ready to shoot some geckos?"  
"You know it." I tell her.

"Alright, now follow me."

We head out in the wastes with my rifle in my hands. I keep behind Sunny a bit while she takes the lead. It looks like we are heading out to nowhere until she stops behind some rocks.

"Hold up," she sticks her hand in front of me, "There are some geckos up ahead, these critters are fast," she turns to me, "You sure you can handle this?"

I ready my gun, "Yeah I'm ready."

"Alright." she moves quietly forward, and points to about 3 of them sitting by a well. She motions for me to fire at one of them.

I ready gun and aim at the torso at one the geckos. Holding my breath, there is no sound until the loud boom from the gun and a shriek comes from the hill above us. I can hear a lot of pitter patter from small feet as the start to move. I have now a better picture of them. They have comically big eyes, claws and feet that are webbed shaped, with their purple shaped bodies, they are all coming towards me.

I hold my gun straight in front of me and fire into the crowd. I guess I hit one in the head, because one of them fell hard. Another one tries to circle around me and bite me, but I sidestep out of the way. The other one is circling above the rocks, I was standing at before. I hip fire into the gecko in front of me, it him in the leg, because he is starting to limp. I leave that one alone and turn around. I can see every individual tooth in the gecko's mouth. Instinctively I punch it in the mouth, but what I should have known it would do, is that it chomped down on my arm. I scream trying to shake it off. When I think all hope is lost, I hear a loud bang and the gecko's head explodes in front of me. A pile of blood, flesh, and some teeth is all over me. I look over to where the sound came from. I can see Sunny waving and yelling,

"Next time, don't try to punch it in the mouth!"

"I won't!"

"Watch out!"

"Wha-" I turn around and see the crippled one trying to bite my leg, I kick it and shoot it in the eyeball. It grabs at its eye, and I put another one in its head to put it out of its misery.

I brush off the rest of the brain and blood of my shoulder. Not that much of a problem, until I notice the gash on my forearm. I look at it for a second until I realize the pain sets in. I grab my arm and kneel on the ground. I'm about touch the ground with my arm until I hear Sunny yellow,

"Don't do that or it will get infected!"

I stop, and look up to her. She fumbles around her pockets and pulls out a bag. She takes the contents out of the bag and rubs them on the wound. It stings even more for a couple of seconds, until I can see it start to heal before my eyes. I look up at her and say,

"What was that?"

"That's something the locals call healing powder. Get some xander root and a broc flower, grind them up and then burn it for a couple of minutes and you get some healing powder. It's good if you don't have any stimpacks on you."

"Does Chet sell any?"

"He should have a bit. I have to make a run anyway and get some. Would you mind finding some of the ingredients for me?"

"After saving my arm, sure."

"Alright, in order to find some xander root you need to look by the schoolhouse, and to find some broc flower you need to head the graveyard."

"Sounds good. I'll head over there now."

"Okay, I'll wait by the campfire."

I head on over towards the schoolhouse, on the way I think to myself.

 _Well I almost got my arm bitten off. That would be strange explaining to the doctor. Hey, my entire arm almost got chewed off, can you fix it? The look on his face would be priceless. I need to "convince" Chet to get me some when I head to his shop._

I reach the schoolhouse and look around for some xander root. Surveying the ground I can see what looks like a plant attached to a stone.

 _That's xander root, it has to be._

I walk towards it and I'm about to pick it up until I see a green blur coming towards me. I quickly backstep and pull out my rifle. It looks like a giant preying mantis, and it's not happy to see me. I aim the gun at its head and with one bullet it dies.

Slinging the gun back over my shoulder, I reach down and grab the xander root. I stuff it into my bag and go on my way to the graveyard. As I'm walking down the road, I see a robot come up to me. Standing at about 8ft tall with one wheel to keep balance, the screen shows a smiling cowboy, and in a southern accent it tells me,

"The name's Victor, how about yours?"

I look at the screen and say, "My name is Six."

"Six, hmmm…." the screen changes to the cowboy stroking his chin in thought, "Aren't you the courier I dug up?"

"How did you dig me out of the ground?"

The face turns back to normal, "With these," he spins his "hands", "It was hard getting the dirt cause it would slip out of my hands."

"How did you even know I was buried?"

"If you're in a town like Goodsprings and you hear a gunshot, you're not gonna go and investigate, and also your arm was sticking out of the ground."

I chuckle, "Guess Benny did a bad job at burying me."

"So that's what Mister Fancy-Pants name was."

"Mr. Fancy-Pants?"

"Did you see what he was wearing, it was a white and black checkered suit. He had to be from New Vegas."

"New Vegas? The place with all the casinos and lights."

"The only place in the Mojave like it."

"How come that place is relatively fine compared to the rest of the Mojave?"

"It's before the bombs went off, was gonna use the platinum chip to explode all the bombs that were targeting New Vegas, but the chip was schedulded for the day after. So about 10 bombs hit New Vegas."

"The platinum chip?"

"The chip that fancy pants took from you. It's suppose to be the most important chip in all of the Mojave."

"Why is it even in the form of a chip?"

"Cause its New Vegas, it was more a stylistic choice than anything."

"Huh, well thanks for information."

"Alright, well see you 'round."

"You too, Six."

And with that he rolls away on his wheel. I head back up the hill to the graveyard. I reach the top of the hill and see a bunch of tombstones. They are all the same until I see one that is an empty grave.

 _Guess that one is mine._

I walk over to it and stare at it. The shallow grave that fits my body perfectly. I can tell it was done quickly because it is a bit uneven. I keep looking down until I hear a buzzing sound. Looking to my right, I am face to face with a boatfly.

 _Well crap, I guess it's time to shoot some bugs._

I can see it about to shoot its larva at me, so I sidestep out of the way. The fly tries to stab me in the face and I hit it with the butt of my gun. It flys backwards a bit, and I aim the gun right at its face and fire. Its head explodes and the goo and guts get all over me. I wipe my face off with my hand and look around. I can see a couple more boatflies flying around. I take aim with the rifle, and shoot the wings off of one, shoot one in the legs, and another in the face. One of them falls to ground head first. Another flutters down by a grave and the last one's head explodes and hits the ground with a loud slam. I decide to leave the flies to suffer on the ground as I continue to look for the broc flower.

I look around the graveyard and the surrounding area for the flower. After a couple minutes of searching, I can see an orange-greenish plant sticking up from the earth. I rip the top part of it off and place it in my bag. While turning around and heading back to Sunny, I put on the radio.

 _See that man with red suspenders_

 _And that bright red fender_

 _Well he thinks he's very clever_

 _Get that communist Joe_

I switch the station

 _Here on X-Minus One, we will take you on a trip throughout a thousand would be worlds in a million would be galaxies. Turn off the lights, turn up the volume, as you experience with different possible true stories of astronauts, parade organizers, and spies as they take on the very planet Mars and its inhabitants._

"Radio drama, huh this sounds interesting."

As the different characters tell me of their woes, I head back towards Sunny's direction with the materials. Just as someone got shot in the program, I reach Sunny and say,

"Hey, I have the two things you need."

"Really, here let me see them."

I hand her the two plants and she gets to work. She puts them over the campfire and burns them both into a powdery substance and puts them in a bag. She ties it up, gives it to me and says,

"This is healing powder, as you see it's not that hard to make."

"Thank you."

"Well I have to collect more ingredients, but I have a job for you. The owner of the saloon is named Trudy, and it would be horrible if someone new didn't say hi."

"Okay, I'll head over there."


End file.
